


Bleed Out

by praiseofshadows



Series: that hunter au I'm not writing [2]
Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Vampire, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-26
Updated: 2014-01-26
Packaged: 2018-01-10 03:56:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1154579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/praiseofshadows/pseuds/praiseofshadows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“What,” Thor says as he sits down on the bed, “no comment about how I take you to the nicest places?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bleed Out

Thor looks over at Loki. Loki is still staring, listless, out the passenger seat window. He's far too thin, all pale skin and sharp angles. He hasn't spoken since the last time Thor had stopped for gas and asked if Loki wanted a candy bar.

They're still a ways from New Mexico, and Thor doesn't like to think about how Loki got so far without a car. Doesn't like to think about all the perverts, the ones Loki makes eyes at truck stops because he thinks nothing of leading them on when he wants a ride, so secure in thinking he's quicker then their fists. 

The sun comes out, and Loki fumbles in the glove compartment for his spare sunglasses, and it hurts, all over again, that Loki had just kissed Thor goodbye, sat back on his heels, and _waited_.

“Do you,” Thor says and finds he can't continue. He swallows. Hard. “Do you,” he starts again, “mind if we stop for awhile?”

“I can drive,” Loki offers. His voice is flat, all emotion cried out last night. “If you want.”

“I'd rather stop.”

Loki shrugs. “If you want.”

Thor finds an exit with a motel that doesn't look too skeevy but will still allow Thor to pay for the room up-front and in cash. Loki usually leers a little at the clerk on duty. He always plays it up, like Thor's some closeted redneck who picked up a barely-legal kid fallen on hard times. Says it makes them less like axe-murdering psychos, but Thor thinks it's just because Loki likes to fuck with people. He doesn't dare do it when they're with Dad, but then Loki claims Dad _does_ legitimately look like an axe-murder.

Today, Loki just stands there while Thor checks them in. He doesn't bother taking off the sunglasses, and if Thor didn't know any better, he'd think Loki was one hit away from overdosing in the bathroom, needle jammed in his vein. 

Once in the room, Loki throws himself down on the bed, burying his head under his arms. 

“What,” Thor says as he sits down on the bed, “no comment about how I take you to the nicest places?”

“I'm not _Jane_ ,” Loki says, vicious as a viper. “But I'm sure you've been around her so much lately, it's easy to forget.”

And Thor's suddenly had it. “Oh, fuck you,” Thor says. “You think Dad and I have been, what, exactly, while you've been pulling a cross-country runner? That we've been having _fun_? That we haven't been scared to death because that thing that got Mom is still out there, and we weren't sure --” He can't continue because there aren't words that describe the tightness in his chest as he thought about Loki, lying gutted somewhere because they couldn't find him. Because Loki bleeds. Thor remembers the time when he was ten and Loki was seven and Loki had almost bled out, so silent, in the back of the car.

Thor had reminded Dad of that, during the first horrible twenty-four hours when his brother was gone and he thought his father had lost his mind. But no, Dad had said, bleeding didn't make Loki human. 

“How could you think that?” Thor asks, finally, miserable, sinking down on the bed beside his brother. “That we would want to k-kill – ?” He can't finish the sentence. He buries his face in Loki's shoulder. Loki smells the same: like cheap detergent and magic. Like _home_. 

Loki turns over, causing Thor to lift his head. Loki's eyes are glassy, horrified. He doesn't seem to know what to say. Thor doesn't blame him. Thor doesn't know what to say either. 

So Thor kisses Loki instead, kisses him deep so Thor can stop all his wrong words, stop Loki from believing that Thor would have – _could have_ – killed him, like Loki was just some _job_. Something Thor could get over, like it wouldn't have been the end of Thor. 

“Fuck you,” Thor says again, when he's pulled away from Loki's mouth to breathe. His hand shakes as he cups Loki's face.

Dad's always warned them not to look into a vampire straight in the eye. _You mind me, boys_ , he'd say, _You let them enthrall you, and you'll never wake up again_. 

“Dad said he kept me,” Loki says, eventually, “kept me for leverage.”

“Dad says a lot of things,” Thor says, “and they're mostly bullshit.”


End file.
